Headphone amps

[az]

Well... are they worth it? I "only" have Sennheiser HD497s, and use the headphones mostly for the PC (Terratec 24/69 w/ front module, which has a dedicated headphone out w/ pot).

I'd like to tinker a little, and since I'd hate to make something useless, I was wondering if a headphone amp would give me better sound (in addition to being fun to make - NOTE: I could never design such a thing myself, but I've found some schematics, and it seems doable to me).

AZ

[K6-III]

The place to turn for that is headphone amp forum at www.headfi.org

[Jon P. Inghram]

I've got two headphone amps, a Headroom Total Airhead portable amp (with a broken volume pot at the moment ) and a Meier-Audio Corda HA-1 amp that I bought and assembled back when he was selling it in kit form. The only thing I can say for certain about the amps is that with my portable CDP (Panasonic SLSW860) my HD-600's DO sound significantly better with the amp as opposed to the headphone jack. Plus it's very handy to have an actual physical volume control knob when listening to the comptuter with the headphones.

[az]

Well, I already do have a physical headphone volume knob in my soundcard's drive bay thingy.. that's why I'm asking if it makes any sense using a headphone amp

AZ

[Brian R.]

I have a Shure FP22 headphone amp and it is necessary to get my high-impedance HD-600 to sound good playing DVDs on my computer. Not enough gain in my soundcard.

What is really the nuts is the Sennheiser DSP360 for Dolby with the headphones. Eliminates the "middle of the head" feeling when the audio is in the center channel when Dolby is used. Also gives a behind-the-head sound as in the theater. Recommended!

http://buy.sennheiserusa.com/ASP/Sennheiser/pdf/dsp360.pdf

(Don't know where you can get them. They seem to be discontinued. I will look)

Maybe here?

http://www.schnaeppchenjagd.de/html/Home/Computer-Buero/Peripheriegeraete/Mikrophone-Headsets/Sennheiser-HSE-DSP360-EU-Surround-Modul_a_3752610.html